© Capital Community College Our Friend, the Semicolon

© Capital Community College Rule #1 Semicolons are used to replace #7 comma rule if the sentence has several (3 or more) other commas

© Capital Community College Rule #1 cont… Before the semicolon is entered, here’s what your sentence may look like: Bob, who is nasty, was mean, and he was a big, nasty bully, too.

© Capital Community College More on Rule #1 Here’s how we can fix that problem: Bob, who is nasty, was mean; and he was a big, nasty bully, too. Notice how the semicolon is placed before the conjunction AND

© Capital Community College Rule #2 Use a semicolon to replace a #10 comma (items in a series) if there are commas within the items

© Capital Community College Rule #2 cont… Before the semicolon, your sentence may look something like this: I saw Bob, a nice guy, Alice, a girl, and Larry, a boy.

© Capital Community College More on Rule #2 Notice how three people have been listed in a series, but there is more to say about each (hence all the commas) And here’s where the semicolon comes in and saves the day… I saw Bob, a nice guy; Alice, a girl; and Larry, a boy.

© Capital Community College Rule #3 Let’s begin with a simple sentence: Grandma stays up too late. Use a semicolon between two sentences to replace AND, BUT, OR, NOR, FOR, YET, SO (your coordinating conjunctions).

© Capital Community College Rule #3 Now let’s expand on that a bit: Grandma stays up too late. She’s afraid she’s going to miss something. This is OK. Two independent ideas, separated by a period.

© Capital Community College Rule #3 cont… What if we try to combine the two ideas? Grandma stays up too late, she’s afraid she’s going to miss something. Something’s wrong. We connected two independent clauses with only a comma. The dreaded COMMA SPLICE!

© Capital Community College Rule #3 cont… We could insert a coordinating conjunction (making it comma rule #7): This is better! Note the comma that accompanies the coordinating conjunction. Grandma is afraid she’ll miss something, so she stays up too late.

© Capital Community College More on Rule #3 We could also try subordinating one of these ideas: Grandma stays up too late because she’s afraid she’s going to miss something. Notice that the comma disappeared. One idea (the second one) now depends on the other; it has become a dependent clause.dependent clause

© Capital Community College Our Friend, the Semicolon But let’s try something else.

© Capital Community College How to make Rule #3 work Let’s try using a semicolon in this sentence. Grandma stays up too late ; she’s afraid she’s going to miss something. Notice there is no conjunction used with this semicolon – either subordinating or coordinating. Just the semicolon, all by itself.

© Capital Community College Moving on to….Rule #4 Use a semicolon between TWO sentences if the second sentence begins with a parenthetical.

© Capital Community College Rule #4 Sometimes semicolons are accompanied by parentheticals – words such as however, moreover, therefore, nevertheless, consequently, as a result. Grandma is afraid she’s going to miss something ; as a result, she stays up too late.

© Capital Community College Another example for Rule #4 He is nice; however, I don’t like him. Parenthetical Semicolon separating the two sentences (since the first word in the 2 nd sentence is a parenthetical

© Capital Community College Our Friend, the Semicolon Notice the pattern: ; however, semicolon + parenthetical + comma

© Capital Community College Our Friend, the Semicolon Now you know everything you’ll ever need to know about using semicolons!